Johnny Sexton admits it's a "massive honour" to lead Ireland out as captain for the first time in his career.
Remarkably Sexton, 34, has never skippered his country at Test level in 85 appearances but he takes over the role from Rory Best for Thursday's World Cup pool clash with Russia in Kobe.
Voted last year's World Rugby Player of the Year, Sexton returns after a leg injury and is among 11 changes from the side that disastrously lost to host nation Japan last Saturday.
The Leinster out-half was informed by Joe Schmidt this morning that he would lead out the team and he was looking forward to his family hearing the news.
"It’s a massive honour," said Sexton. "I spoke to Joe this morning, so I only found out myself over the last few hours.
"I haven’t even had a chance to tell my family or anything, but I’m sure they’re going to be very proud as well.
"It’s something that I’ve thought about since I was a kid, something I’ve made a lot of decisions around trying to get there one day.
"It has taken a while but it was worth the wait and I’m incredibly proud. I want to be captain now of a good performance and a good win in a World Cup game, so that’s my main focus – I don’t think anything changes really for me.
"I have a big responsibility in the team anyway so nothing has changed."
Sexton stopped kicking from the tee after 25 minutes of the opening pool win over Scotland after suffering a quad muscle problem but has been able to kick this week.
"Yeah, I kicked yesterday a little bit – I wasn’t out there too much – and then I kicked again today, in both sessions. So I feel good and ready to go now."
Sexton knows it's going to be a tough night on Thursday because, with the roof closed in Kobe, the conditions are extremely hot and humid, and that will challenge players in terms of keeping their footing and keeping hold of possession.
"We watched the game last night there (Scotland v Samoa) and it looked very slippy," he said. "We watched the England game as well (against the USA).
"Obviously when you hear it’s an indoor stadium you think air-con and probably a little bit cooler, but it’s quite the opposite, we hear.
"It’s something we’re going to have to be mindful of. Even when you play outside the ball gets pretty slippy.
"Against Japan, in the first half (the ball) was bone dry but the longer the game went on, the sweatier everyone got.
"The ball was like a bar of soap. It’s something we have to be conscious of, playing smartly – we can’t just go out and run everything.
"But we have a good plan in place and hopefully it won’t be too big a factor".
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
